On a typical day at HCA you can find students rehearsing lines, practicing jump shots, reviewing vocabulary, and writing essays. But if you visited HCA on October 16th, you may well have run into Benjamin Franklin, had lunch with Amelia Earhart, given Sacagawea a high five, or heard The Statue of Liberty tell you a joke. History, inventors, and the icons of America come alive each year at HCA’s Live Museum.
In a fun tradition for elementary students, their parents, and the whole Horizon community, students’ favorite figures are brought to life for a live interactive encounter. The chapel is transformed into a hall of presidents, inventors, and policemen. Each elementary grade brings a different category of history to life for all our guests to enjoy. This year our students shared characters from American symbols and famous Georgians to inventors and explorers.
Traci Jones, Elementary Principal, feels that the Live Museum is one of the highlights of the year, “Live Museum builds our students’ communication skills, integrating Social Studies and Language Arts standards as students research a historical figure or symbol, prepare a short summary, and present their information to other students, parents, and grandparents.” Students spend about a month researching their figures, learning not only the information about their lives, but what it might have been like to live in their time. For their presentations students create a display to share facts and curiosities about their chosen person, and then prepare a verbal demonstration.
The best part of the event for parents and grandparents, however, is seeing their children dressed fully as their research subject and acting as if they were them. Nothing is cuter than a 4 foot 2 inch singing version of Ray Charles. A smaller version Ruth Wakefield, the creator of Toll House Cookies, baked and brought cookies to share as she told about her life. Reflecting on the morning, elementary parent Alison Smith shared, “I learned so much, and thoroughly loved meeting all of the children. Seeing the hard work and real understanding they brought to their projects is a joy.”
Live Museum represents just one of the many opportunities for the elementary students of HCA to learn in depth, creatively explore, and understand history and the people who lived in their times. Creating experiences of learning for students and including parents in the expression of that learning is just one way that HCA partners with families to create Christ-centered educational environments.